Match of the Millennials pits USA vs. the World

7/26/2017 – Yet another interesting new event put on by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the Match of the Millennials sees eight young American players face off against some of the best juniors from around the world. World Junior Champion Jeffery Xiong leads the USA squad, and Haik Martirosyan from Armenia heads the World team.

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Top Juniors Battle for $30,000

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL), in cooperation with the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF), the U.S. Chess Federation, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and the FIDE Trainers’ Commission hosts the Match of the Millennials from July 26th through the 29th. Eight American players face eight of the best juniors from around the world.

All games

Full commentary — Round 2

Results of round 1

Full commentary — Round 1

Garry Kasparov himself was on hand to watch the match kickoff, and later was interviewed by Maurice Ashley.

Kasparov interview

Opening Ceremony

Match format

The match has an unusual format and is played in two sections, but both a double round Scheveningen system tournament:

Team Under-17 — four boards with a substitute, consisting of players born on or after January 1st, 2000

Team Under-14 — four boards consisting of two Boys & two Girls born on or after January 1st, 2003

The U17 Teams will be playing a total of eight games for each player — two rounds a day.

The U14 Teams will be playing a four round match — one game a day, for a total four games for each player, with boys playing boys and girls playing girls.

Board points are counted for the final standings. Each winning team of each section will be the first to score 16½ points out of the 32 games (U17) and 8½ points out of the 16 games (U14). In overall standings, the winning delegation will be the first to score 24½ points out of the 48 games. In case of a tie (section & overall) the match will be drawn. There will be a winning team (if any) in each section and an overall winner of both sections (if any).

Time Control: All games will be played by classical time control: 90 minutes for the entire game with a 30 seconds increment per move, starting from the first move (G/90+30" increment).

The winning team will receive $20,000, while the runner-up will receive $10,000. Prizes will be split evenly should the match end in a tie.

See also

11/22/2017 – Aryan Tari from Norway and Zhansaya Abdumalik from Kazakhstan lead at the World Junior Championships. In the Open Tari drew in round 7 against Awonder Liang from the US and won in round 8 against Grigoriy Oparin. With 7.0/8 he is now half a point ahead of two players with 6½/8 each. One of them is the Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa, who won against Liang in round 8 and scored his first GM-norm. In the Girls section Abdumalik won in round 7 but lost in round 8. With 6½/8 she now shares the lead with Anastasia Paramzina. | Photo: Bernd Vökler

Video

The setup for White recommended by Valeri Lilov is solid and easy to play – the thematic moves are almost always the same ones: Nge2, 0-0, Bg5 (or Be3), Nd5, Qd2. Later, according to Black’s setup, things continue with f4 or even Rac1, b4 and play on the queenside. Starting with the classic Botvinnik-Spassky, Leiden 1970, the author describes this universally employable setup in 7 videos (+ intro and conclusion).

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.